1. Field of the Description
The present description relates, in general, to methods and devices for trapping insects that do not fly or jump (i.e., crawling insects) such as bed bugs, and, more particularly, to an insect trap for use in capturing and also killing parasitic and/or biting insects, e.g., bed bugs and other non-flying insects and/or non-jumping insects.
2. Relevant Background
An ongoing concern is how to best control and, preferably, eliminate many insects from homes, apartment buildings, and hotels and, particularly, to remove insects from places where people sleep. For example, bed bugs are parasitic insects that feed on human blood and are mainly active at night. Since 1995, bed bug infestations of human habitats has been on the increase such that there has recently been an increase in demand for effective methods for detecting and then eliminating bed bugs from resorts, hotels, apartments, and other human dwellings.
Bed bugs do not have wings but are one of many insects that are non-flying and, for the most part, non-jumping insects. Bed bugs are relatively small growing to 4 to 5 millimeters in length. Bed bugs are nocturnal bloodsucking insects (i.e., parasitic insects) and will prey on humans when other prey is not available. Studies have indicated that bed bugs may be attracted to their blood hosts by warmth (e.g., temperatures in ranges of typical prey skin temperatures or even temperatures of skin with underlying blood flow), by carbon dioxide (breath of likely prey), and by certain chemicals (odor attractants such as pheromones released by a host).
Many insect traps have been developed to attempt to capture bed bugs. In the most simplistic form, insect traps with pitfalls are available that provide a tray for placing under each leg or post of a bed. These leg post-based traps generally are designed to have a center well with steep/vertical sidewalls for receiving the bed post and making it difficult for any trapped bed bugs from climbing up to reach the bedpost. The leg post-based trap also includes an outer pitfall, defined by an outer wall and well (or pitfall trap) that extends about the center well. Typically, the outer wall is vertical or so steep that many of the bed bugs may not be able, or will stop trying, to climb this outer wall. Hence, the “trap” may act more as a barrier than a trap and provide a false negative result indicating that few or no bed bugs are present in a room as the bed bugs look for other ways onto the bed or for other prey in adjacent rooms or parts of a building (e.g., the next apartment or hotel room).
Another type of bed bug monitor or trap has been produced that attempts to provide better monitoring of bed bugs by concurrently using multiple lures. These multi-lure traps include a carbon dioxide source and a release mechanism to periodically release carbon dioxide to mimic breathing of a blood host (a sleeping human). Additionally, a multi-lure trap may function to release host odor attractants (e.g., kairomones) to attract the bed bugs by their sense of smell or detection of particular chemicals associated with a host. Further, the multi-lure trap may include a heat source to provide warmth similar to that provided by a human host. In one exemplary multi-lure trap, a sloped climbing surface made of a felt-covered plastic ramp is provided that gives any attracted bed bugs a ramp to the three lures, and the end of the ramp provides a sharp edge drop off into a pitfall trap (e.g., a well or pit with four vertical walls and a base mating with the top of the angled ramp). Bed bugs that fall into the pit or well typically have trouble climbing back out of the steep well or pit. The makers of these types of traps teach that bed bugs avoid sticky traps.
However, manufacturers of other personal bed bug monitors or traps have argued that insect traps for bed bugs do not need to use a carbon dioxide release device as this makes the device overly complex and does not add to its effectiveness. Further, these manufacturers stress the need for specific adhesives to retain or capture bed bugs once they fall into the pit or well. In other words, the trap designers recognized that bed bugs are very strong and able to climb out of many traps that are not “sticky” or even that do not use the correct adhesive to capture or trap the attracted bed bugs. These devices may be shaped like a small tray with a central heat or warmth lure (a heated dome) that is used to attract the bed bugs. A sloped side is provided to create a ramp leading bed bugs toward the warm dome/center portion, and a pit or well with walls/surfaces covered with an adhesive or sticky sidewalls are used to capture the bed bugs that crawl or fall into the pit surrounding the warm core/center. The adhesive surfaces have to be periodically replaced or maintained to allow continued use, which may be undesirable or impractical in some settings.
Existing insect traps have not met all the needs of consumers, and there remains a disagreement amongst manufacturers as how to best lure insects such as bed bugs to a trap and how to trap or retain the insects once they are in a well or pit. Hence, there is a need for new designs for insect traps that will assist in monitoring infestations of crawling (or non-flying and non-jumping) insects such as bed bugs and, in some applications, there is a desire for such traps to capture and also kill the attracted insects (e.g., to make disposal easier and to better ensure trapped insects do not escape).